Happy July 4th.

I'm back from our country's 50th state. Did you know that Hawaii wasn't made a state until 1959? What a weird and beautiful place. I'm not sure they all know they are a state now. We found ourselves referring to the tourists (us) as "Americans". We were in a touristy area so the disconnect seemed particularly vast between the visitors and the population. I am digging into the history of the "annexation" of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Interesting parallels to the Iraq situation.

Anyway. We went all over the big island of Hawaii. I was with my Dad, my brother Ffaelan, his fiance' Debra and my fiance' Alex. We stayed in my Dad's timeshare in Kailua-Kona. That was really cool. It had a full kitchen, so we had a lot of our meals in-house, and fixed picnics for our day trips. We did something different everyday, alternating strenuous trips with lazy outings.

On Sunday we went North to a little town called Hawi. It was cool and funky, with art galleries and a "dive-y" atmosphere. My brother and I revelled in the decay and took lots of pictures. I was consciously looking for things to document that weren't the typical "postcard" views of Hawaii. This is hard to avoid in some cases since it really is that darn pretty.

On Monday we drove 96 miles south to view the site of the Kilauea eruptions in Volcano National Park. It's been erupting continuously since the mid-80's. We walked and drove all over the site. The devastation is breathtaking. They say it's like walking on the moon, and it's true. Pictures can't really convey what it's like to survey the black and charred desolation that stretches to the Ocean.

We walked .7 miles over cooled lava to view petroglyphs that were carved into the rock sometime in the 1800's. I took dozens of pictures of these and they really merit their own post, so I will save these along with most of the crater pics for another day.

The next day we drove north again to Spencer Beach. It was mostly empty on a Tuesday. The water was glorious and my brother, Al and I swam for a long time. We had a picnic lunch and relaxed under the shade of the huge banyan tree that the beach is known for. Then we headed up to Kapaau to visit a bookstore I'd read about. It is called Kohala Books and has new and used books. My brother and I both plunked down a chunk of change. He found an Anne Sexton rarity, and I found a biography on Charles Lamb and his sister that I hadn't known existed. (I am wild about the Essays of Elia.)

Wedsnday we took a short cruise on the Fair Winds 2 to Kealakekua Bay for a morning of snorkeling. The lovely site has quite a morbid history. The cliff base that shelters the bay is the old burying grounds of the Ali'i (royalty) of Hawaii. The captain told us that in order to maintain the secrecy of the burial, a villager would be "volunteered" to secrete the body on the cliff face. He would lower himself and the body on a rope down the sheer face. After the body was buried and concealed, the villager's final task was to cut his rope and fall to his death. The cliff is till considered sacred today and no one is allowed on it.

This bay also marks the fall of Captain Cook. Below is a site marker that commemorates his death. Evidently some dispute broke out between Cook's crew and the natives of Hawaii. In the fray, Cook was killed at this very spot. This little plot of land was deeded to the British and is considered British soil.

Despite the grim associations, the bay was perfect for underwater site seeing. The crew of the Fair Winds are very strict (huzzah!) about not spoiling the reef. We weren't allowed to put our feet on the ocean floor or touch the fish, rocks or coral. The boat was our "beach". Alex, Ffaelan and Deb got the hang of snorkeling pretty well. Me, not so much. I did what I called "smorkelling" and just held my breath for short bursts of looking underwater with my mask on. The water is so salty you can't get very deep anyway.

There was a ton of stuff to see. We took underwater pictures. My dad has these to develop so I hope to post some of these in the near future. It was like swimming in a tank in the Steinhart Aquarium!

Thursday we drove south again to do some sightseeing. First we went to a tour at a coffee farm called Greenwell.
We tasted yummy coffee and got to follow our guide on the process from plant to drinkable. I bought a half pound of private reserve Kona coffee. I am now ruined for any other kind of coffee, though Alex tells me that the Guatemala coffee will blow me away.

After that we drove down a bit to visit St. Benedict's aka the Painted Church. We arrived at the same time as two big busloads of tourists off the cruise ship that had anchored in Kona. Ugh. Between waves of humanity, I took pics of the wonderful murals in the church. They depict biblical scenes and other "great moments in Christianity". Mass is still celebrated in the church.

Our last stop was the Place of Refuge. This is an awesome place, very quiet. Nowadays it is refuge ot sea turtles who come and lunch on the algae that grows on the rocks in the cove. It's amazing to walk around a site with so much history. There is a huge wall still there that was erected in the 1500's. A lot of it has been reconstructed, but you still get the sense of the place, I think. It's a great place to reflect on the royal Hawaiian culture that is so unique. The takedown of the monarchy is really melancholy reading.

On Friday, we poked around Kailua-Kona some more. We took pictures of the first church of Hawaii, and the royal vacation house that is now a museum. We took the museum tour, but you aren't allowed to photograph the interior, so no shots of that. Here is their web site that shows some good highlights of the tour. After that we went home and got ready for a luau at the Royal Kona Resort down a ways from where we were staying. It was kooky and fun and the food was really good. We were sitting next to a cool family also from California. Their young son thought that Alex was Captain Hook from Peter Pan, and watched him more than the action on stage. Alex obligingly made pirate noises for him. All in all the perfect ending to the holiday.

I am glad to be back to home and computer. Funnily enough I was reading this entry from Wikipedia today that states that Rand Mcnally reports that Oakland has the best climate in the United States! Hey, why leave? Actually we spent much of our trip trying to convince my father to retire to Hawaii.

Lots of pics below. Aloha!
MPK